Roald Dahl's dark Dirty Beasts set to music for children

LONDON (REAUTERS) - Roald Dahl's Dirty Beasts poems have a musical cadence which may explain why, after the success of stage versions of Matilda and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, three of them are being set to music to introduce young people to the orchestra.

The anteater which gobbles a spoiled rich boy's aunt, the flying toad which can turn itself into a roly-poly bird to escape frog-loving French gourmands, and the girl with a bag of sweets who sits on a porcupine and has to have quills removed by a dentist have been orchestrated by composer Benjamin Wallfisch for a February premiere at London's Southbank Centre.

"In these times when kids have so many options, I was hoping with this piece aimed at people under the age of 10 to inspire them to explore the orchestra," Wallfisch, 34, who comes from a distinguished British musical family, told Reuters in a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles.

The premiere will take place during Southbank's Imagine children's festival, which this year features a major strand of Dahl tributes to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.